In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Elizabeth Shaw, a strategic events mastermind and author of The Optimist Manifesto. The conversation opens with a sponsor read for Authors Unite. Shaw shares a formative "dollar‑bill moment" from her post‑college move to Boston after 9/11, illustrating the need to bet on oneself when external support is lacking. She then offers her core expertise: live events succeed only when they have a clear purpose and mission, warning against hosting events merely to mimic competitors. Shaw expands to broader business counsel, advocating collaboration over competition, and advises her younger self to prioritize action over perfection. She defines happiness as embracing every moment, recommends The Three Marriages by David Whyte—highlighting a shift from balance to harmony—and cites her own quote, “What you do with the glass is more important than how you see it,” to encapsulate optimism as both mindset and action. The episode concludes with her website, divine.com, for listeners to connect.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with the support you need to finish your book. Best part is, after you finish your book, they take care of the entire publishing and marketing process 100% for you. So if you want to become a successful author, make sure to check out authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Elizabeth Shaw with us. She is a strategic events mastermind and author of The Optimist Manifesto. She and her company Divine guide organizations and leaders in using optimism and events for engagement and and success. So welcome to the show.
Thanks, Tyler. I'm happy to be here.
Of course. Happy to have you on. So the first question we ask on the show, Elizabeth, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So the best story from my life that continues to resonate to this day is when I just graduated from college. I was bright-eyed, optimistic young girl. Preparing to move across the country to Boston. And it was shortly after September 11th. The economy was in the depths of a recession. I didn't have a job. I didn't really have an apartment, and I didn't know a single person in the city. And a few days before my departure, I was with some friends and mentors and a couple leaders from my community, and I was sharing my plans. And one of the leaders pulled out a dollar bill and he slid it across the table and he said, Boston's a tough, expensive city. It's naive of you to move during this time without a job, without contacts, and expect to actually succeed. You're going to need all the help you can get. Give me a call when it doesn't work out and you move back home.
Mm-hmm.
In that moment, my heart's racing with embarrassment. I'm like, my face is flushed with anger, but I didn't have a good response for him other than just that unwavering belief in myself and what was possible. And in that moment, I call it my dollar bill moment. That's when I learned there will be occasions in our life where we have to bet on ourselves and we might be the only ones doing so. But if we don't, it's certain that no one else will. Wow.
That is a huge lesson. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Yeah, I'm happy to say 16 years later, I'm still in Boston and I keep that dollar bill on my desk. Yeah, I love that.
Awesome. So the next one I have for you, I'm excited for your answer on this one, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So my expertise in is primarily in events. And so my best piece of advice there is if you want to host a live event, and a live event could be anything from a full conference to a book launch or a mastermind summit, You need to have a clear purpose and mission for that event in order for it to be successful. I have so many clients that come to me and say, I wanna host an event because my peer or my competition is doing it, or they think it's a really lucrative way to make a lot of money. And while those are certainly justifiable outcomes in some way, Events are really time intensive and they take a lot of energy. And if you're not clear on that purpose and mission for it, it won't be successful.
And then what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Best piece of overall business advice is to collaborate instead of compete. I think so many of us have been taught to believe that our success is dependent on us winning over someone else. So winning that job, that new piece of business, or competing against our colleagues. But I think there's so much more opportunity for success when we align ourselves to win with others.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
My advice to my younger self would be to choose action over perfection. I spent way too many years frozen by indecision, thinking that I had to have all those ducks lined up in a row. And as a result, I think I delayed my personal and professional growth and missed out on a lot of opportunities.
And then kind of going down slightly a different path here, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness is to embrace every moment.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
My favorite book is called The Three Marriages by David Whyte. He's trying to help us reimagine our relationship with work, with others, and with ourselves. And what I learned from that is that striving for balance, which is such a key word and hot topic, actually keeps all of those things in tension with one another. So they're always competing with one another. And instead, it's better to be striving for something like harmony where we can get them all integrated, working together to reinforce and support each other.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
So my favorite quote is actually from my own book, and it's, "What you do with the glass is more important than how you see it." Mm, I love this quote because it exemplifies that optimism is as much about action as it is about mindset. So often optimism's simplified into, are you a glass half full or half empty sort of person? But to truly live optimistically, you also have to be taking optimistic action.
Mm, amazing. Um, well, listen, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is where can our audience best find you online?
Yeah, thanks. So I can be found on my website, divine.com. That's D-A as in awesome, V-I-N-E dot com. And thanks so much for having me today, Tyler Wagner.
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